Wendy Call

I am a writer, editor, educator, and translator based in Seattle. In 2011 I served as Writer in Residence at Cornell College of Iowa, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Vermont, and The Studios of Key West. In 2010 I was in residence at the American Antiquarian Society, Harborview Medical Center, Hedgebrook, New College of Florida and Penland School of Crafts.

My narrative nonfiction book, No Word for Welcome explores how economic globalization intersects with village life in southern Mexico. Published by the University of Nebraska Press, it won the 2011 National Book Prize for Nonfiction awarded by Boston's Grub Street.. (You can read a brief excerpt from the book here and the first chapter of the book here.)

I write nonfiction and translate poetry and short fiction from Spanish. In many publications my photographs accompany my writing. All the images on this website, unless otherwise noted, are mine.

I also work as a freelance editor and writing coach. I co-edited, with Mark Kramer, Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide (Plume/Penguin, 2007). A 2009 article in Poets & Writers called Telling True Stories "one of the best books available on narrative nonfiction."

Read my essay about queer culture in Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Read my recent essay on the history of the Mexican Isthmus from a gringo point of view, published in July 2011 at Common-Place magazine.

In the summer of 2010 I was
Writer in Residence at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. In April 2011 Seattle's KIRO Radio ran a story about my work there.

Please read my blog!

Let's talk about books!

Photo above by Tom Collicott, 2007
Photo to right: Church in San Dionisio
del Mar, Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, 2000

No Word for Welcome won
Grub Street's 2011 National
Book Prize for Nonfiction. Judge Michelle Seaton noted, "It's a beautiful book, well-reported and important in scope."

Publishers Weekly says of
No Word for Welcome: "Call is never dry or academic; rather, she writes lively narrative, detailed description, and engaging scenes that render her subjects--a schoolteacher, fishermen, activists--three-dimensional." Read the entire review here.

The Iowa Review says: "Call’s graceful movement between cultures demonstrates her considerable skills as a writer, and especially as a translator....Wendy Call’s book is at once a portrait and...a warning to the rest of the citizens of our global village." Read the entire review here.

I traveled from Atlantic to Pacific for my book tour, holding 36 events in 16 states, for the No Word for Welcome book tour. See my events page for details on events still to come in 2012.